I ended up making a long weekend out of the race and went up with my husband and parents. (One of the nice things about this being the second race in the series is that I scoped out a bunch of places and restaurants for us to visit while there for the first race.) The day we arrived it was later in the day so we checked into our hotel and then checked out Boston Common since it was a similar setup to the 5k in April with the same starting area. We enjoyed getting a sneak peek at the starting/finishing area and getting to see the Make Way for Ducklings statues.
Yup, definitely not my pace group.
And there was a ridiculously happy swan napping by one of the many ponds. (It was kind of fascinating watching it curl up! Its neck was flailing all over the place while it tried to get comfy.)
We then waited around for dinner in Little Italy. In that time I chose my final race outfit and settled on my a flyout tank in snap (a bright orange) and shorts.
After dinner we walked past the Old North Church (the famous church that signaled for Paul Revere to go on his famous ride) and enjoyed the scenery.
It was a little dark at that point, but still beautiful!
That night I slept rather fitfully (as is usually the case the first night in a hotel) but was ready to go on race morning. I threw on my clothes and headed down with my Dad to get our race shirts. (We were staying close enough that we could get our shirts, drop them off back in the hotel and hang out for a little while before gun time. There's definitely something to be said to be able to use a REAL bathroom before a race instead of portajohns.)
The second time we headed down we brought my Mom and husband with us so they could see us off. The field was large once again, so it took me about 20 minutes to actually start the race. (At least this time the elites didn't finish as I was starting!) When I put my rap for running playlist on shuffle, the perfect song came up...
Yes, Ice Cube. I CAN do it!
I also kept an eye out for the three lines I saw during the 5k in April. Not totally surprising that they were a little harder to spot this time around.
The course itself was fairly similar to the 5k (just longer) so I had a fair idea of what to expect. It was warm that morning, but not unbearable so I made a tentative plan to do my best given the circumstances. It was a pretty flat race too which worked in my favor (somewhat.) I didn't end up finishing in my best time ever (1:09:07 with an average pace of 11:01), but it was still pretty respectable for me.
(Seriously, that hill is barely even a blip.)
The finisher's area was pretty similar to the 5k with gatorade, water, protein bars and craisins. Once I met up with my Dad, Mom and husband again, my husband broke it to me that Meb was giving out high fives at the finish line and I had just missed him by about ten minutes!
The medal once again was gorgeous!!
Overall, I would recommend the race. Once again it was well organized and the process for getting my bib was super easy (they mail it out about a month in advance) and my anxiety about getting the right size shirt was unjustified--they had more than enough to go around! I really love running through a city as scenic as Boston, and I enjoyed getting to see a little bit more of the town as I'm starting to get well acquainted with it. My only gripe is with the date--a race in late June can be almost too dicey in that it could really be super hot or just tolerable. The course was pretty shaded so it was fairly easy to remain somewhat cooled off and it was easy to find a shady tree to sit beneath post-race while waiting for my Dad to finish.
Have you run this race? What have been some of your favorite race-cation destination cities? Comment below!!
